SCENTING THE PAST with Valerie Krips

The sense of smell is one that can perhaps, more than any other, take us back to the past. The scent of wood burning in the grate, and of wax candles just snuffed out for example, can transport us, reminding us of our own pasts, or of pasts we imagine. In the last few decades much use has been made of scent in historical houses and reconstructions to enable visitors to enter into the period represented. This talk considers the importance of scent in its current role as a means of recreating, or creating, versions of history.

VALERIE KRIPS retired from the English Department, University of Pittsburgh, in 2006. She now lives in Melbourne, where she is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests lie in cultural studies, and in particular heritage and memory.

interior detail from Dennis Severs, 18 Folgate Street: The Tale of a House in Spitalfields, Chatto & Windus (2002)